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Barack Obama Speaks at Democratic National Convention; Interview with Hillary Clinton Campaign Spokesperson Karen Finney; Interview with The Honorable Tom Perez and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired July 28, 2016 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[08:00:00] TONY SCHWARTZ, CO-AUTHOR, "THE ART OF THE DEAL": I invented the phrase, in order to help him kind of cover over the fact that he lied, truthful hyperbole, truthful hyperbole.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: You created that? That was a good one.

SCHWARTZ: The problem is that there is no such thing as truthful hyperbole. If it is hyperbole --

CUOMO: That's why it is such a good line.

SCHWARTZ: The problem was, at the time I thought it was a harmless lie, and for reasons of self-interest, and I'm not the only person who operates in self-interest, but I did, I'm sorry I did, but truthful hyperbole is an admission of deceit. And I think the notion that this man makes it his business to lie, as he did, by the way, this morning, when he said I was being sarcastic. He wasn't being sarcastic yesterday about Russia. He was responding impulsively, reactively, without thinking, which is what he does.

Do we want a president who doesn't think? Do we want a president who doesn't think? That's a difference between him and Hillary Clinton. I'm not here to argue Hillary Clinton's case. I know she has plenty of issues, and so do all politicians. But what I am here to say is no one doubts that if Hillary Clinton had to make a decision, she would think carefully, she would seek outside counsel, she would be reflective, and Trump is incapable of doing that.

CUOMO: Tony Schwartz, I appreciate you coming forward. I know that this is not a comfortable situation for you, but it is important. This is our country we're talking about. So thank you for sharing your perspective. Appreciate it.

SCHWARTZ: Thank you very much.

CUOMO: All right, there is a lot going on in the election. Last night was the night for the Democrats to date. Did they get it done? Did they make the case they needed to make to you? We've got full coverage. Let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: America is already great. America is already strong.

SEN. TIM KAINE, (D) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: With Hillary, it is not just words, it is accomplishments. She delivers.

OBAMA: The American dream is something no wall will ever contain.

JOE BIDEN, (D) VICE PRESIDENT: He is trying to tell us he cares about the middle class. Give me a break. That's a bunch of malarkey.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's time to put a bully racist in his place and a tough woman in hers, the White House.

OBAMA: Yes, she can. Yes, we can. We're going to carry Hillary to victory.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.

CUOMO: Good morning, welcome to your NEW DAY. It is 8:00 in the east. Alisyn and I are still at the Democratic National Convention here in Philadelphia.

(LAUGHTER)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: You say it like you're getting tired of it.

CUOMO: No, not at all. These are fake.

So the big night last night was headlined by the president of the United States. He said that he is ready to pass the baton to Hillary Clinton. This hug the most overt expression of the big bet for Democrats, Hillary Clinton as an extension of the Obama administration. Is this the magic that they need to have the first woman president elected in the United States?

CAMEROTA: The party's biggest stars came out. They slammed what they called Donald Trump's message of fear. The stage now set for Clinton's acceptance speech. What will she say tonight? We have it all covered. Let's begin with CNN's Michelle Kosinski. She's live inside the convention hall. Do we have a preview, Michelle?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alisyn. It is part of this message they're crafting. You could really feel that last night, first with this video about President Obama's accomplishments told in the voices of the people who are closest to him. But that was also about the temperament of a president, all that the job demands, the tough decisions that you have to make. So they set up the framework there.

And then President Obama comes out to delivers this speech that he spent weeks writing, long nights, six drafts. And this is really the first time I think you feel the goodbye starting from him, the "I'm really leaving, and here is what I need you to do for me." (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOSINSKI: You could almost see the weight of this moment and of America's choice on President Obama's face, as he tried to connect past with present with future.

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: While this nation has been tested by war, and it has been tested by recession, and all manner of challenges, I stand before you again tonight, after almost two terms as your president, to tell you I am more optimistic about the future of America.

(APPLAUSE)

KOSINSKI: Optimism the focus in a speech the president delivered with a constant smile even as he ripped into Republicans laying out a stark contrast.

[08:05:05] OBAMA: But what we heard in Cleveland last week wasn't particularly Republican. And it sure wasn't conservative. What we heard was a deeply pessimistic version, where we turn against each other, and turn away from the rest of the world. There were no serious solutions to pressing problems, just the fanning of resentment and blame and anger and hate. And that is not the America I know. The America I know is full of courage, and optimism, and ingenuity. The America I know is decent and generous.

KOSINSKI: And this time, President Obama didn't hold back. Yes, saying the name.

OBAMA: And then there is Donald Trump.

(BOOS)

OBAMA: Don't boo. Vote.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: The Donald is not really a plans guy. He is not really a facts guy either.

(LAUGHTER)

OBAMA: The choice isn't even close. There has never been a man or a woman, not me, not Bill, nobody more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as president of the United States of America.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: We're not a fragile people. We're not a frightful people. Our power doesn't come from some self-declared savior promising that he alone can restore order as long as we do things his way. We don't look to be ruled. And the American dream is something no wall will ever contain.

(APPLAUSE) KOSINSKI: Making the point that unity and democracy work. Not to be overlooked --

OBAMA: We all need to be as vocal and as organized and as persistent as Bernie Sanders supporters have been.

(APPLAUSE)

KOSINSKI: He urged the crowd to vote and for gun control advocates to be as vocal as the gun lobby, becoming emotional as he started to tell some real stories of American struggle, compassion, and perseverance.

OBAMA: And I'll tell you what has picked me back up every single time. It's been you, the American people.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: It's the painting I keep in my private office, a big-eyed green owl with blue wings made by a seven-year-old girl who was taken from us in Newtown, given to me by her parents so I wouldn't forget.

Time and again, you've picked me up. And I hope sometimes I picked you up too.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: And tonight, I ask you to do for Hillary Clinton what you did for me. I'm asking you to join me to reject cynicism and reject fear and to summon what is best in us to elect Hillary Clinton as the next president of the United States and show the world we still believe in the promise of this great nation. Thank you for this incredible journey. Let's keep it going. God bless you.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOSINSKI: There has been so much emotion this week. And we've heard these very unique speeches from Michelle Obama, Bill Clinton, Joe Biden, now President Obama. So tonight everyone will be watching how Hillary takes that baton, how she takes that message that was so carefully crafted at this convention, and makes it her own. She'll be introduced by her daughter, Chelsea. Chris and Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK, thanks so much for that preview, Michelle. Let's bring in Karen Finney, senior adviser and spokesperson for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. She knows what is going to happen tonight. Karen, how are you?

KAREN FINNEY, SENIOR SPOKESPERSON, HILLARY FOR AMERICA: I'm great. How are you guys doing?

CAMEROTA: We're doing pretty well. Don't try to distract us.

(LAUGHTER)

CAMEROTA: What is she going to say tonight?

FINNEY: Here is what I think -- she is still working on it, but you're going to hear thematically her story and her vision of where we want to go in this country. But I think you're going to hear kind of the core values and the experiences you've seen this week and heard from a lot of the people who have really shaped her life from --

CAMEROTA: Is she going to talk about her past?

FINNEY: Sure, her high school friends and her time in Children's Defense Fund, and the work she has done on, you know, child care and health care for kids, and serving our country as secretary of state.

CUOMO: Anything we haven't heard before? Not that that's a bad thing. Obviously her time in government, service matters.

FINNEY: I think you're going to hear, as I said, her personal journey and her personal experience. There is a thrill line that we don't always talk about in her life, and it is this real fundamental belief, it is why we're talking about stronger together, and she also talks about it takes a village, and really this fundamental idea that when we come together, that's how we solve problems.

[08:10:05] And I think there is -- you also hear a very fundamentally vision for the country than what you heard last week. And I think if you look at the arc of this week and ending with Hillary and her vision and her story, we are putting together a much different vision of this country, and, frankly a much more optimistic vision about who the American people are. That's why this week there were so many wonderful little girl, you know, Carla and the blue star mothers, or, I'm sorry, the gold star moms, and just hearing from people all across the country who are doing incredible things but represent this idea that we can solve our problems together.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about the arc of this week.

FINNEY: You got it.

CAMEROTA: Up until now, it culminated last night in the embrace with President Obama and Hillary Clinton. But it got off to a bumpy start on Monday with the DNC e-mail leak and Bernie Sanders supporters seeming to sort of revolt. Did you fear it was derailing at some point?

FINNEY: You know, I'll tell you why we didn't. We knew that the first night really need to be about Senator Sanders and honoring him and his supporters and really making this about unity. That's part of why on Monday night you heard from Keith Ellison, you have prominent people who have supported Senator Sanders who are making the case for affirmatively why they now support Hillary.

And I think you also saw throughout the week, a lot of people, Senator Kaine did it last night, you heard from the president, there is a lot of respect for Senator Sanders. And I think that is really important. That's why I said even Monday night, as the night went on, I think people kind of, you know, they had some energy to get out. We saw that in 2008 quite frankly. And I think the arc of the day and this week have really brought us to a different place.

CUOMO: So let's get to some news.

FINNEY: Sure.

CUOMO: Certainly from your perspective. Tonight, are we going to hear Hillary Clinton talk about Donald Trump baiting the Russians to hack her e-mails?

FINNEY: You might. I think you'll certainly hear --

CUOMO: He said he was just being sarcastic, that this a non-troversy.

FINNEY: Here is the concern. I can only go off of what has been reported. But we do know that he has praised Putin time and time again. The platform just last week in Cleveland, they changed it around in terms of how they deal with Ukraine. That was a little troublesome.

CUOMO: Via-a-vis the Russian.

FINNEY: Via-a-vis the Russian. And certainly the public reports have indicated that there is a connection to Russian actors, state actors if you will. And I've got to say, when you have Leon Panetta, the former head of the CIA, the former defense secretary, really talking about, you know, you don't make jokes about, you know, inviting the Russians to hack into our e-mails. I mean, again, you know, if it was a joke, then again, that just shows, this is not somebody who has a judgment or temperament to be commander in chief. It is not funny.

CAMEROTA: How much will she focus on Donald Trump tonight in her speech?

FINNEY: I think you'll definitely hear a contrast, both in what the positive and what she talks about, because, if you remember, that's not what we heard last Thursday, quite frankly, in Cleveland. But, yes, I think you'll hear her make some points of contrast.

CUOMO: How did you feel that your man, Tim Kaine did last night? He has to work on his Trump impression.

FINNEY: He had the whole audience going. Oh, please.

CUOMO: Did you think it was good?

FINNEY: I thought it was awesome. I love the way the audience got into it. Audience participation, big thing.

CUOMO: It's also different for Tim Kaine. Those of us who know him, we have him on NEW DAY fairly often. He is very passionate about the authorization for the use of military force and the lack of debate on it. It's a big issue, doesn't get enough attention. But what did you want him to be last night, and do you think he was that?

FINNEY: I thought he was fantastic. Here is one of the things about Senator Kaine that I think is so important on this ticket. He and Hillary Clinton, their story, a lot that is very similar in terms of she, in part motivated by her faith and her desire to do good in the world worked at Children's Defense Fund. He partially motivated by his faith and became a civil rights lawyer, went and worked abroad for a year. So there is this social justice, civil rights tradition. And I think he both told his story quite well. He did take on the Donald pretty well. You have, like, the impression that he did, but I think people were having fun with it last night.

CUOMO: Absolutely, they were enjoying it. I have become a Trump impersonation --

(LAUGHTER)

FINNEY: Look, I have to just say, I also, you know, having worked for Hillary Clinton for 30 years, or known her for 30 years, that moment as a black woman to see the first black president embracing a woman who could be our first female president, like, I was just a puddle. The idea, that says something about who we are as a country. And I just think that's so important. I think that image is so important that, you know, yes, we have our problems and our challenges, but I hope that people can feel positive about the idea that, like, we really do incredible things in this country.

CAMEROTA: Karen Finney, we look forward to watching tonight. Thanks so much for previewing with us.

[08:15:00] FINNEY: You bet.

CAMEROTA: Well, as we've been discussing, the newly minted Democratic nominee, Senator Tim Kaine will join us live tomorrow on NEW DAY. Tune in for that.

CUOMO: So, which message will resonate most with the voters? You have choice. It was laid out last week and now this week, culminating in tonight. What do you think about the country? Is it America in crisis, or is it America that has its best days to come?

We're going to discuss with one of Hillary Clinton's short list choices for VP, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Democrats want you to think that this nation's future should be filled with hope. That's what this convention is about. It's very different than what we saw a week ago, which was functioning as a real look at what is priceless in America.

So, which message wins?

Joining us now, the honorable Tom Perez and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown.

Gentlemen, thank you for being here.

SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D), OHIO: Good to be here.

THE HONORABLE TOM PEREZ, ENDORSED HILLARY CLINTON: Great to be here.

CUOMO: What is the risk? What is the risk of being hopeful? Here is the risk. Politically, it is that you may seem tone-deaf. There are real problems, parent racial division, fear of economic crisis. There's being killed by terrorists, if you say everything is OK, we should all be about hope, are you missing? Are you tone-deaf to the problem?

PEREZ: I don't think anybody is tone-deaf. I think Hillary Clinton understands clearly, we've come along way.

[08:20:01] When President Obama took office, we were in the throes of the worst recession in our lifetime. We inherited a mess, 2.3 million jobs lost in three months before President Obama took office.

Now, we've seen 70 months in a row to the tune of 14.5 million jobs. But there's unfinished business and that unfinished business is to make sure that the wind at our back shares prosperity for all. That's what Hillary Clinton is talking about. That's what President Obama talked about last night, which is that, you know, we are a nation of fighters, we are a nation when we get kicked to the side of the road, we get up and we get up and we drive.

That's why I love America. That's why Hillary Clinton loves America. She is all about marshaling that collective power of "we" so that there is indeed shared prosperity, because we're stronger together.

The biggest difference between the two candidates is about pronouns. She is about we, he is about me.

CAMEROTA: Well, that's what you're talking about is the part of the message that has also complicated to get out to voters, is this a third Obama term. So, if things are good and if everybody is in lock step, if everybody has the same message, then it is a third Obama term, and some me voters seem to not want that.

BROWN: Well, it is more complicated than that. The voters, you know, as Tom suggests, when President Obama took office seven plus years ago, we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. Since we did the auto rescue and since the Recovery Act, which turned this economy around, we've seen 70 plus months of economic growth. It doesn't satisfy me, doesn't satisfy the labor secretary. That's one of the reasons for his overtime rule, why he and I and the vice-president kicked it off in Columbus, Ohio, 140,000 Ohioans will get a pay raise or work fewer hours for the same pay.

Because of that we -- Donald Trump, of course, things can improve, especially on wages, but Donald Trump paints a picture everything that is wrong in this country. He uses the word disaster. He uses the word terrible. He makes us almost look like we should aspire to be Russia, the way things are there, the way he's asked Putin to come in to help.

I mean, Americans are frustrated. We don't think things are going into the right direction, but we don't think it is as dark when I sat on the stage with you in Cleveland during the Republican convention, my home town, and how dark they were, and how negative, how negative they were about this great country. It is astounding.

That is why Michelle Obama's speech was so good, when she says, don't anybody tell me this isn't a great country. I've never seen a presidential candidate talk so down about the United States of America. I don't think people buy it.

CUOMO: What does Hillary Clinton have to do with the negatives? We know it is your convention and we know you're not going to have speakers go up there and talk about the e-mail scandals. But she doesn't have to address those things.

In our last poll, it's neck in neck between the two of them. What's not neck and neck is her trustworthy number, 68 percent said I don't think she can be trusted. How does she take that on tonight?

PEREZ: Well, I think she's going to tell the story about herself. We have heard that all week. I mean, I think she is the most famous unknown person in America. When Bill Clinton told the story of Hillary Clinton the other night, there were 12 examples of Hillary Clinton change agent. Nine or ten of the stories people didn't know.

I've been on the stump for her in my personal capacity for the last five, six months. That's what we tell, the story of Hillary Clinton, who gets up everyday and her North Star are people who are striving to get in the middle class and stay in the middle class. That's what she has done day in and day out.

She is a fighter. She is fighting for people with disabilities. She is fighting for people who doesn't have health insurance. And that's the story we're going to tell. We're going to make sure that at the end of the campaign, she is the most famous known person in America. And you tell that story.

And yes, there are people out there, that President Clinton pointed out the other night, who are trying to paint this cartoon picture, and we're going to counter that with the facts. Every day, she gets up and makes sure that person who needs paid leave has paid leave.

BROWN: It's interesting about the cartoon character because when Hillary Clinton has held public office, as a senator for eight years from New York, as a secretary of state for four years, she had very favorable -- if you want to talk polls -- she had favorable ratings from the public. Each of those eight years in the Senate, each of the four years as secretary of state, once she was out of office, the attacks began, one after another.

She is not perfect. She made mistake. When she wins this, and I think she is going to win, people are going to see the side of Hillary, the empathetic side, the side of caring for people with less advantage, the side of helping small business, all the things that she stands for, that she will do well and lead this country.

PEREZ: And the voters who have known her best, the voters of the state of New York elected her not once but twice. And I grew up in Buffalo. I have a lot of friends who are Republican. When she first ran, they were skeptical. And what they saw was a workhorse, someone who came to farm country to

listen to the flight of farmers. Someone in central New York to say to mothers, and I remember being out there recently and a mother was saying, we have a growing nanotech sector in central New York, thanks in no small measure to Hillary Clinton.

[08:25:08] She is bringing jobs back home so my kid doesn't have to move to North Carolina after he graduates college. She is a workhorse. Tim Kaine is a workhorse.

BROWN: When I came to the Senate in 2007, I was lucky enough just by random really to have my office right across from Hillary Clinton's office. I used our whole, how do we help small towns, how do we help rural areas, the whole program was based on advice she gave me. I would go across the hall.

She talked to me about what she did in areas, which are hurting not New York City, because that wasn't the probably, but Rochester, and Utica and Jamestown and those small towns and what I could take to Toledo and Springfield and my home town of Mansfield, in Dayton. It made a difference and made me a better public servant. That's why I support her, because I understand how she looks at public service.

CUOMO: Well, two people who know Hillary Clinton, making the case for her. Thank you very much, gentlemen.

PEREZ: Good to see you again.

CUOMO: Always good to have you.

BROWN: Always good to see you.

CAMEROTA: Thank you.

Donald Trump now says that he was just kidding. He was being sarcastic when he suggested the Russians should hack Hillary Clinton's e-mails. Rudy Giuliani joins us live, next, on that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)